Generate a WooCommerce subscription billing plugin
WooCommerce Subscriptions is the default for recurring billing on WC, and at $249/year for a single site it prices out a lot of small shops. If your subscription model is simple — monthly or annual billing, one product, predictable renewal — you do not need the full feature set. You need a plugin that charges the card on a schedule, retries on failure with a policy you define, and exposes the status in the admin.
Generating a plugin for this gives you a codebase you understand, with the logic that fits your business. No multi-gateway abstraction layer, no hooks you will never use. Just a cron job that runs on the schedule you picked, hits the payment provider, updates the order status, and fires a webhook or email so the rest of your stack reacts.
Why generate it instead of installing an existing plugin?
The Stripe Billing API handles almost all of the hard parts of subscriptions on the provider side — proration, dunning, trial periods, usage-based billing — through their hosted Customer Portal. A WordPress plugin that wraps Stripe Billing (or Paddle Billing, or Chargebee) and syncs state back to WooCommerce orders is often 300 lines of code, not a 200-file enterprise plugin.
If you already use WooCommerce Subscriptions and it works, keep it. If you have not bought it yet, or if you are building a SaaS where the WP shop is a thin layer in front of Stripe, a generated plugin is often the better fit. You control renewal timing, notifications, cancellation flow, and the data model.
We have seen shops pay hundreds of euros per year for two features they actually use: recurring renewal and cancel from my account page. Those are both doable in a lean custom plugin. Everything else WooCommerce Subscriptions offers (variable pricing subscriptions, synced renewals, switching between products) can be added later as separate hooks if the business grows into them.
Example prompt
This is the kind of description that generates this plugin. You can start from it and tweak whatever you need before hitting generate.
Plugin name: Acme Subscriptions Lite
Model: one product per subscription, monthly or annual billing. Uses Stripe Billing (create customers, prices, subscriptions via their API).
Flow:
1. On WC product page for a "subscription" product type (we register the type), the Add to Cart button becomes "Subscribe".
2. On checkout, we create a Stripe Customer + Subscription using stored PriceID. No initial charge in WC; let Stripe handle billing.
3. Webhook endpoint /acme-subs/v1/webhook listens for invoice.paid, invoice.payment_failed, customer.subscription.deleted. Updates a custom post type "acme_subscription" with status.
Admin:
- Page "Subscriptions" with list table: customer, status, next billing date, amount, actions (cancel, pause if Stripe supports).
Customer My Account:
- Tab "My Subscriptions" showing their active subs + one-click cancel (calls Stripe API).
Emails:
- Payment failed (from Stripe webhook).
- Subscription cancelled.
HPOS-aware. Uninstall deletes custom post type and options but NOT the Stripe subscriptions (they should be cancelled in Stripe first).What the generated plugin typically includes
- Custom WooCommerce product type registered via woocommerce_product_class filter
- Stripe Billing SDK wrapped behind a service class — easy to swap for Paddle or Chargebee
- REST webhook endpoint with signature verification
- Custom post type for subscription records with a list table in admin
- My Account tab rendered via woocommerce_account_<endpoint>_endpoint
- Idempotent webhook handling using stored event IDs
- HPOS compatibility + declaration
Ask for Paddle instead of Stripe, a trial period, different renewal intervals, reactivation flow, or coupon support — the plugin adapts to what you describe.
Frequently asked questions
How does this compare to WooCommerce Subscriptions?
WooCommerce Subscriptions is broader and more battle-tested. Use it if you need features like synced renewals or switching between plans. A generated plugin wins when your case is narrower and you want to own the code.
Who charges the cards — Stripe or my site?
Stripe. We use their Billing API so card data never touches your server. The plugin reacts to webhook events to update order status on your side.
Can the plugin handle failed payments?
Yes. The retry policy lives on Stripe (configurable in their dashboard), the plugin just reflects the state. On definitive failure the customer gets an email and their subscription moves to on-hold.
What about taxes and invoicing?
Stripe Tax handles calculation and invoices. The plugin stores a pointer to the invoice URL in the subscription record; customers access it from My Account.